In 1899, British photographer and inventor Edward Raymond Turner
patented the first color moving picture process, but it was so
complicated that it was never replicated. Following Turner's blueprints
and instructions for the process, researchers at the National Media Museum
digitally copied three frames of film taken from two rolls that were
discovered in 2009. The three frames were reconstructed in Photoshop
with red, green, and blue filters, similar to how they would have been
using Turner's original equipment through the use of colored gels.
As explained in the National
Media Museum's video, each frame of the original film had to be
re-photographed three times with each colored filter (RGB) and compiled
into the final product, which took about three years, thanks to federal
and private funding. The footage was then unveiled to the media for the
first time in 110 years — possibly for the first time ever.
This article was written by Shawn Schuster .
